Motorsport: Murph's Musing - Round 8

Greg Murphy arrives for the UBET re-launch. Photo / Getty Images

I wasn't really surprised about anything from the weekend's round of the Supercars championship at Ipswich to be honest.

Triple Eight Racing, like they showed in Townsville, are starting to look like they are creating a bit of a pattern. They proved they are finding a bit of dominance in the championship. Pro Drive are hanging on, doing a good job but they need to do a little better.

Pro Drive were unlucky not to contribute a little more this weekend. Chaz Mostert might have been in a good position to win the Saturday race - he got into a battle with Chris Pither on the opening lap that cost him dearly. He could have won that race if he had managed to get out in front to start with.

Speaking of Pither - his maiden pole position was a superb result. He did an amazing job. Chris' performance over the weekend highlighted his determination to be at the front of the field. He has been working hard with the team and his engineer to gain as much experience and knowledge as he can.

He did a beautiful job on Saturday to out-do the field for his first Armour All Pole Position. That was a great moment for him. It was appreciated by everyone in the paddock just what a great job it was because it is a tough old championship.

Then to hear on Monday that Tony Lentino, the founder of Super Black Racing, had passed away after that fight with cancer it seems that the timing from Chris was very good. It is tough for everyone that is involved in that operation and anyone that knew Tony and the family. It is a sad day for the sport.

Craig Lowndes' win on Sunday was special. There are many names that have played a part in creating the depth of history we have had in this part of the world. It is difficult to really go past Lowndes though - what he has contributed over a 22-year career and the fact that he is still continuing to win at the age of 42 is a testament to just how brilliant the guy is.

Teammate Jamie Whincup has won six championships and sits on 99 career wins and will win many more. Those guys really do stack up as easily the best there has been in the V8 era. No question we have two of the best - maybe the two best of all-time - racing in the championship at the moment and in the same team.

We have got a couple more of those guys starting to show their wares as well - Shane Van Gisbergen is one of them. Who knows potentially where he may end up in terms of championships and wins? The challenge for Shane is that he has arguably the two greatest in history as his teammates at the moment. Shane thrives on competition though - there is no better feeling when you beat guys of that calibre and he wouldn't want it any other way.